UN-converting a garage (Islip: apartment, assessor, how much) - City-Data Forum

totallyfrazzled · 08-08-2008, 07:55 AM

We're looking at a house in which the owners converted the 2-car garage into a "maid's quarters" (guess that's the new euphemism for apartment; I'm heading to the Town office today to find out whether it was a legal conversion or not). If we do buy this house, we'd want to convert it back to a garage. The current setup has a full kitchen, full bath, bedroom and living room. Has anyone converted an apartment back to a garage and if so, how much did it cost? Even a ballpark estimate would help, because we'd need to factor that cost into our offer. Thanks!

Kbinspections · 08-08-2008, 07:59 AM

Does the conversion still have the garage door?

totallyfrazzled · 08-08-2008, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kbinspections

Does the conversion still have the garage door?

The garage doors still exist on the outside but are sheetrocked-over on the interior. There is also a standard exterior door on the side wall leading to the backyard. Btw, I just got back from the Town Bldg Dept. Turns out that the conversion WAS done legally, in the early 1990s, and the house was changed to a legal Mother/Daughter (2 family/family) and was reassessed as that. BUT...that was done by the owners BEFORE the current ones, and the current owner never applied to keep the legal m/d status. So as of now, the house is an ILLEGAL 2-family (because now it's considered as having an illegal accessory apartment). It's still being taxed as a 2-family though (the Assessor and the Building depts never talk to one another, it seems). So if we bought it we would HAVE TO un-convert the garage anyway (since we don't need or want what's there now). The demo permit alone is $400. So I'm really curious as to how much it would cost to remove what's now in that illegal garage apartment (AND thus lower the taxes!)

Oh, btw, the garage is 400 square feet if that helps in estimating....

Kbinspections · 08-08-2008, 11:51 AM

It could not cost that much.....maybe $5,000 total assuming that they built a sleeper floor over the garage slab.

$400 demo permit......thats crazy.....

totallyfrazzled · 08-08-2008, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kbinspections

It could not cost that much.....maybe $5,000 total assuming that they built a sleeper floor over the garage slab.

$400 demo permit......thats crazy.....

That's Town of Islip: "ALL residential permits require a $200.00 non-refundable filing fee PLUS.." and under that heading is the list of permit fees, which includes "Demolition Permit, valid for 4 months only: Up to 9,999 sq ft $200; up to 49,999 sq ft $500; 50,000 sq ft and up $1000".

Would you say that the approx $5000 figure included a small to medium dumpster to get rid of everything that's there (kitchen cabinets, bathroom, walls, flooring, etc)? How much are dumpsters going for these days anyhow (for that kind of debris... I know the rates can differ depending on what's being put into them)?

OhBeeHave · 08-08-2008, 12:41 PM

It's going to take more than a small dumpster (4 yds) if it's a complete gut.

If you do intend to go ahead you might want to consider Freecycling the items (kitchen cabs, etc) if the are salvagable. There are plenty of people who would be willing to take them from you, thus sparing you some of the cost of a dumpster.

rocafeller05 · 08-08-2008, 06:38 PM

If it was me I would keep the sink and toilet; If it wasnt in the middle of the floor space. Always good to have a sink "outside" to wash your hands after working around the house. Just a idea.

totallyfrazzled · 08-08-2008, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocafeller05

If it was me I would keep the sink and toilet; If it wasnt in the middle of the floor space. Always good to have a sink 'outside' to wash your hands after working around the house.

Actually my SO and I were discussing that earlier, but I pointed out that in order to get the garage "back to its original state" (as the zoning person phrased it today) the Town Inspector would have to see certify that there was no longer any so-called living space in it. And frankly I don't feel like being assessed for an extra bathroom. What I did say was, we could always make sure that the plumbing lines for the sink remained in place, and then after the house was changed back to just a one-family with a plain old garage, we could have our plumber come back and install a utility sink (which is indeed a great thing, we've had one in the garage of each of our last three houses!) in the garage later on. I definitely don't want a toilet in there though, just a utility sink.

Still wondering what dumpsters go for nowadays.